Are you organizing around health, tech, and/or bodily autonomy?
If so, I’d love to talk with you!
As part of my PhD research, I’m looking to interview community health organizers about their organizing visions, how they manage, collect, and engage with digital data, and their visions for better tech alternatives. I'm especially interested in talking to folks from organizations that seek to build bodily and community self-determination, autonomy, sovereignty, etc.
Think: Self-managed reproductive care, gender affirming care, street medics, harm reduction, etc.
I would especially like to hear from you if you've been involved with digital tech infrastructure in a grassroots health organization.
If this sounds like you and you're interested, get in touch through the following form: https://asu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_71bktyn9Nm9jq98
Or send me an email!
Want to know more?
See my related scholarship and volunteer work below
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Publications on Data Autonomy and Sovereignty
E Lim, M Lisker, L Hess, M Engeler, LM Friedman, J Lingel, MU Ali (2026). Privacy Will Not Protect Us. De Gruyter Handbook of Critical Data Studies 31, 19
Friedman, L.M. (2025). Who is sovereign and how? Informing data sovereignty practice through analysis of autonomous health movements. communication+1, 12. https://openpublishing.library.umass.edu/cpo/article/id/2306/
Lim, E., Lisker, M., Hess, L., Engeler, M., Friedman, L.M., Lingel, J., Ali, M. (2025). Abolish Privacy. First Monday. https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13671
Resources
Friedman, L.M. (2024). Primer: Reclaiming Bodily Autonomy in Data
Friedman, L.M. (2025). Zine: Reclaiming Bodily Autonomy in Data
Presentations and Workshops
Panel Presentation, Society for the Social Studies of Science, September, 2025 (Click to see slides!)
“Understanding and Implementing Community Control of Health Data”
Emerging Engagement Scholars Workshop, October 2024
“Informing data sovereignty practice through analysis of autonomous health movements.”
Panel Presentation, Society for the Social Studies of Science, July 2024
"Digital Divestment Roundtable”
Imagining America Organization, Teaching and Learning Circle, May 2026
Co-facilitator for 1.5 hour digital workshop
“Show me the Money: Tracking and Organizing Against Your City’s Tech Budget”
Take Back Tech Conference, April 2026
Co-facilitator for 1.5 hour conference workshop
Volunteer Work
Since November, 2024, I have been a volunteer researcher with the People's Tech Project and Philly Tech Justice Collective.
As part of this work, I helped organize and AI in Philly webinar, research tech investments proposed and actual in the Philadelphia City Government, and look into potential implications of large data center developments in the city of Philadelphia.
I also was lucky enough to co-facilitate a session on researching city budgets at the recent 2026 Take Back Tech gathering!
Please reach out if you'd like to learn more about this element of my work.